The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-08-27
HUSBANDS SCARCE.
I'D Maids Numerous as Dead
Leaves in the Fall.
NOT ENOUGH MEN FOR THEM.
Some Curious Statistics that VIII In
terest Those who Want Hus-
bands or Wives.

Boston, August 25.-Some curious sta
tistics fell into my hands the other day
which I shall reproduce for their bear
ling on question of the hour-a press
ing question in the east, at least-the
growing number of unmarried women.
In one of the smaller New England
towns, where it seemed as if the family
were almost ceasing to be the unit OF
society, I met d women who for some
years back has Kept record of the girls
who have graduated from the High
School of the village, what they have
done and what up to date has become
of them. She gave nae her figures for
the classes from 1871 to 1876, from six
teen to eleven years ago. and strange
| figures for any marrying or giving in
marriage community they seem. The
average age of the, graduates from a
tv "ical New England high school is be-
twst II is and IL years. Hence, it wound
has been Kept, ranging at present from
greater proportion of all the settling in
life" which they are likely to do. et
There were nineteen girls in the class
of 1871. OF this number, five have mar
ried, tour have died of consumption ten
are unmarried. OF the sixteen girls of
| 1872, six are married and ten are single
| OF the twenty-one of 1878, three are
married and eighteen are single. Of the
thirteen of 1874, two have married, five
have died of consumption and six are
single. OF the thirteen of 1875, five have
married, one has died of consumption
and seven are single OF the seventeen
of;1876, six have married, one has died of
consumption and ten are single-mak-
ing for a total of ninety-nine graduates,
| twenty-one marriages, eleven deaths
and slxty-one women thus far single.
No account is taken of the years since
1876, because, as the average age at mar
riage is advancing, no fair conclusion
could be drawn from the younger
classes. The proportion of single
women, 1t will be seen, is nearly two
thirds of the whole number. Whether
this town is fairly representative of its
section | have no means of knowing,
nor whether the same proportion will
hold among the unschooled or less
schooled girls of the place. There is no
obvious reason why it should not, how
ever, for high school education is not
sufficiently exalted to rouse in my mind
the suspicion that the girl who has sub
jected herself to it has thereby untitled
herself for the domestic duties of life.
The eleven deaths were one and all
from east wind consumption, which gets
to be hereditary and plays direful havoc
in families. There have been two cases
of insanity, but these both occurred
among the married twenty-seven. The
largest number of children in the famil-
les of the married is three. Three of the
ninety-nine girls went to college at er
leaving the High School, but these are
in the married list.
of the unmarried sixty one, twenty
one follow very unusual feminine
trade; they are school-ma 'ams-one at
Hampton teaching the Indians, under
General Armstrong; twenty in public
schools and academies. Three set type,
one reads proof, one is the head dress
maker in a dry goods establishment,
four dressmake on smaller scale, three
are music teachers, one has studied
medicine, fifteen are stitchers and but
ton hole makers in shoe shops, and the
rest are home-stayers.
FEW MARRIAGEABLE YOUNG MEN.
Just what has brought about such a
preponderance of spinsterhood it would |
be hard to say. People have contended |
that it didn't exist, and have explained |
the immense surplus of women in New |
England on the superstition that most |
of them are widows, made SO by the |
hazardous occupations of the men on !
the eastern cOasts Widows there are in |
plenty but these sixty -one-and every
body who knows anything of New Eng 7
land will find it an easy matter to call |
up plenty of similar instances have
certainly never married; probably most
of them have never had an opportunity
to marry. There are very few MAJ
riagesble young men to be found at the
present timeln. any smalhsh New Eng
land town. The serene quiet of the
most lethargic section of these United
States doesn't suit a'young man. He
goes away before he is, old enough to
marry and the chances are he doesn't
come back again. He is 3 drummer
out on the road somewhere, or he finds
his way into business in Boston, New
York or the west. If he makes q vaca-
ton trip home he is impressed by the
lack of moneydn New England, outside
the cities, by the length of time since the
houses have. been painted, and the
amount of calculation required before a
dollar can be expended. He doesn't
stay long enough TO learn to admire the
hardy thrift that can wiring q comfort
able support out of a rocky soil where
New Yorker would starye or commit
suicide, and the girls he left behind him
cannot compare, so he thinks on
MS return, for beauty of dress or pretty
of manner or small talk of
society with the city girl who has be-
,ome insensibly his standard of girl
hood. Not that he expects to marry
he city girl, not at all, no. The news
papers have slandered her to the trans
planted country young man until, be- :,
ween ice cream in summer and seal ;
kins in winter, civilization would be
1sti6ed, if it put much faith In news
papers. in flinging Its girl babies into !
he Charles River, or the Hudson, to rid
he world of such useless encumbrances. 8
The fairly well-meaniDg and domestic :
'oung man thinks he doesn't approve :
# the city girl, but her chic has none
he less surely spoiled the country girl =
or him, the usual result being that he
,oes into bachelors lodgings until be )
las untitled himself in tastes and habits !
o marry at all.
These things considered, it is FORUM !
70 f0r tho epfp aRap that aho 10 houi-L